Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

[jkholm]

I started watching Reacher this past weekend and agree it's pretty good. My only quibble, based on the first two episodes, is that Reacher is a little too smart. Is he ever wrong about anything? Willa Fitzgerald was also good in the MTV Scream TV series.

[BobaMike]

I started watching Reacher this past weekend and agree it's pretty good. My only quibble, based on the first two episodes, is that Reacher is a little too smart. Is he ever wrong about anything? Willa Fitzgerald was also good in the MTV Scream TV series.

I'm enjoying this a lot. Up to episode 5. I don't remember this book (they tend to blur together), but it's a much better Reacher than the Tom Cruise movies. Reacher makes some mistakes in the coming episodes, so don't worry.

The level of violence/gore is a bit much, but I guess it is true to the books. It's too much for my wife, who has to cover her eyes at parts. I also wasn't expecting nudity (although I didn't mind,as the girl is a cutie!)

[Monterey Jack]

I also wasn't expecting nudity (although I didn't mind,as the girl is a cutie!)

Neither did I. It's true to the books, though, as Reacher tends to get laid in most of them, especially compared to the sexually-neutered Cruise version (seriously...can you think of the last time Cruise had sex in a movie? Or anyone, for that matter? ).

[AndyDursin]

Good, something to watch, will have to check this out!

[AndyDursin]

Dp

[AndyDursin]

I can't believe it...Disney keeps doing the same thing they always do. Instead of telling an actual story, this Boba Fett series literally became an ad for the next season of The Mandalorian? Lol This is worse than the days of backdoor pilots in network TV series.

[BobaMike]

Finished the Book of Boba Fett last night. It ended up being okay. It turns out that Robert Rodriguez is a lousy action director. Every episode he touches is subpar. The finale was wall to wall action, but nothing that exciting. I don't understand how Boba is in control of a city with only like 10 people working for him. Nobody important died. Only the two gammorean pig guards and Cad Bane.

I was irritated that Cad Bane was killed- he was one of the coolest characters in the Expanded Universe (great voice, look, and storylines. I hoped he'd be a big player in season 3 of The Mandolorian. ) Of course, his armor was still beeping as they panned away from his body, so perhaps he is still alive.

I did think the rancor FX were amazing- it looked like a puppet, yet moved like a living creature. It's hard to explain, but they did a fantastic job at recreating the look of the rancor from Return of the Jedi yet making it move.

Overall, a neutered Boba Fett who wants to be good isn't that interesting. The first 3 episodes with the Sand People were pointless, as they were all wiped out. The ones with Mando were fun, but sidelined Boba so much that he didn't matter.

Why not have Boba out and looking for revenge on Luke and Han? Or fighting Bossk and the other bounty hunters. Why introduce the Hutt twins then drop them? So many missed storyline possibilities!

[AndyDursin]

Why not have Boba out and looking for revenge on Luke and Han? Or fighting Bossk and the other bounty hunters.

It's like they haven't learned ANYTHING -- why does Luke and the Skywalker story line have to continually intersect with these side franchises and characters? It must be the smallest universe ever!

[BobaMike]

It's like they haven't learned ANYTHING -- why does Luke and the Skywalker story line have to continually intersect with these side franchises and characters? It must be the smallest universe ever!

Oh the answer to that is easy- Luke is the only lead cast member from the original trilogy they can do anything with. Ford won't do much, Fisher is dead. And all their new characters are ones nobody cares about!

[AndyDursin]

That's part of the problem. They fall back on cameos and insert material from other shows because the main line story they are telling isn't strong enough. Like the end of this is a MANDALORIAN Season 3 commercial -- I mean seriously? Fett again gets the shaft as a character in his OWN series? lol

Anyway I'll end up having to watch this anyway even though I'm dreading it!

[BobaMike]

If you are a fan of classic animation and quality scoring, this has been an wonderful week on Netflix.

The Cuphead Show 9/10

This has to be one of the most beautifully animated tv shows of all time. The backgrounds, although digitally painted, are in the watercolor style of the old Disney/ Fleischer cartoons of the early 30's The rubber-hose animation style is perfectly done. The voice acting is excellent, and the score by Ego Plum is top-notch. They even throw in actual 3d sculpted backgrounds sometimes (like in the old 1930's Popeye/Sinbad cartoons). My son and I were both enthralled. Recommended!

Here is the opening credits:


The show has some creepy bits, just like some of those old 1930's cartoons.

Here is part of a spooky cemetery episode, reminiscent of the old Disney cartoon with the dancing skeletons. Some cool 3d sets/props, and some very scary animation.



Cat Burgular 7/10

We also watched this interactive cartoon about a car thief and a dog guard at a museum. At points you have to answer trivia questions. If you fail, you get different scenes. It's all very funny, and a pretty well animated homage to the classic Tex Avery MGM shorts and Tom & Jerry. In fact, there are cameos by some of Avery's characters. Some hilarious poses and action, with lots of easter eggs.

The score, by Christopher Willis, is also the best recreation of that Scott Bradley sound from the 1940s I've ever heard. It's a real orchestra, and could have been lifted straight from Tom & Jerry.

[AndyDursin]

MAGNUM PI
Pilot

Just received the Mill Creek complete series Blu-Ray and watched the original pilot -- a pretty solid mystery that introduces us to Magnum and his world, and holds up pretty well. I never watched the show which aired when I was a kid, so this is a fun view for me (Mill Creek's compression is, as usual, merely serviceable, but it's not awful, and the HD image is clean and boasts gains over the DVD). A young Judge Reinhold is among the faces that pop up plus a Robert Loggia cameo (must have shot his scenes in a day as he isn't on-screen very long).

Musically, this pilot didn't have its original opening, and was a syndicated (2 part) version featuring the familiar opening with the Magnum Mike Post theme. But I noticed only Ian Freebairn-Smith was credited with the pilot music, and Episode 2 -- and the others until roughly the 12th show -- feature a TOTALLY different theme credited to Freebairn-Smith.

Here's the original Magnum opening -- the other episodes on the Blu-Ray that I sampled do have Freebairn-Smith's theme...and it's not nearly as good as Post's theme. Kind of like the pre-Silvestri version of the CHIPS theme (but more so since this is a wholly different theme altogether).

[mkaroly]

My brother and I watched Magnum PI to death when we were kids...I love that show. It gives me a super strong feeling of nostalgia.

[AndyDursin]

SEVERANCE



I didn't want to start writing about this 9-episode series until I had finished it, but fortunately, I can heartily recommend this Apple+ show -- which you think is starting off as one thing and becomes something else altogether -- as easily one of the best I've watched in the last couple of years.

Dan Erickson and Ben Stiller's series kicks off with what seems to be an offbeat premise: a shady corporation offers the ability to sever its employees' brains so their outside -- "outtie" -- lives are unknown to their "innie" office worker selves, who have a shared conscience, it seems, but none of their respective others' personal memories. For those on the outside, this offers them the freedom to live their lives without even engaging in mundane office behaviors -- or being aware of the possibly nefarious activity being carried out inside the controversial "Lumen Corporation."

At the start, "Severance" introduces its principal quartet -- Adam Scott, John Turturro, Zach Cherry and the just-arrived Britt Lower -- as they stare at number patterns being bounced around 1980s-level computer monitors. Why are they there? Why are the surrounding corridors and buildings so cavernous and yet empty? Why does Christopher Walken run his own team on a different floor with equally mundane tasks -- as in restoring weird paintings. And why does "Lumen" corporate goon Patricia Arquette spend her outside time with Scott's "outtie" alter-ego -- spying on his other self without that Scott's knowledge of her true identity?

For a little bit, "Severance" seems like it's crossing LOST with THE OFFICE -- but as the episodes unfold, the show thankfully becomes something much more dramatic and engaging. This isn't just a Shyamalan puzzle type of program, but one in which believable sci-fi elements cross with suspenseful thriller elements and some existential questions about humanity -- especially once the "innies" aspire to more than sitting behind their solitary office cubicle. There's also lots of offbeat humor to go around, subtle as much of it is, especially involving Scott's brother-in-law, a buffoon whose latest self-help book is exalted by Scott's "innie" once it improbably ends up inside the Lumen walls.

The performances are just pitch-perfect, the writing is strong and the pacing of these episodes absolutely on the nose: unlike other streaming shows, there's not a false note or a bloated episode that's needlessly extended. "Severance" builds up a heady dramatic line that culminates in a crackerjack finale leaving you ready for a Season 2 -- and hinting at the larger plot lines the show can run off with. Hopefully it's as carefully constructed, thoughtful and exciting as this first season, which I was sad to see come to an end.

[DirkWickenden]

I've been rewatching my Logan's Run TV series DVD set, which was released on Region 1 a decade ago. I was so pleased when it was released, as it would have been my first exposure to Logan and since entering my forties (I'm now 54 and also recently finished watching my The Fantastic Journey DVDs, that I purchased last year on Region 2), I am nostalgic for series from the 1970s.

I know it was a small budget but the actors essayed their roles appealingly, especially Donald Moffat as REM. Anyway, day before yesterday, I finished the final, fourteenth episode (Stargate) and my young son was pleased as he said he doesn't have to hear the theme tune when I'm watching Logan, when he's gone to bed! It's the 'Pew Pew' bit he doesn't like but I like the theme and scoring a lot. Glad to have FSM's CD of the scores.

I recently rewatched the five original Planet of the Apes films, so it's onto the Apes TV series next, let's see what my son thinks of the theme tune!